Cullingworth nestles in Yorkshire's wonderful South Pennines and I have the pleasure and delight to be the village's Conservative Councillor. But these are my views - on politics, food, beer and the stupidity of those who want to tell me what to think or do. And a little on mushrooms.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Fiddling while the economy collapses...the EU propaganda continues

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So the whole thing begins to resemble a rather sarcastic pantomime, a celebration of mutual incomprehension mixed with self-interest but the EU panjandrums continue with their spending of our money on promoting their myth of Europe:

The European Commission is proposing to set aside €229 million for projects that help citizens to understand the functioning of the European Union, its values and its history. On 14 December, the Commission proposed renewing the current ‘Europe for citizens’ programme, which ends on 31 December 2013, and to increase the budget by €14 million for the 2014-2020 period.

That's a lot of money on promoting the "idea of Europe" especially at a time when frankly there isn't a great deal of money around (or so we're told0 to spend on such frivolity. Yet this propaganda is vital:

“The financial crisis has made Europe more important than ever before for the daily lives of citizens and for public debate. It is therefore more important than ever to support projects that allow citizens and civil society at large to become involved in EU affairs,” said Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship.

These people really do inhabit a different world from the rest of us. They really are so wrapped up in their ghastly mythopoeisis that they believe this nonsense. Sadly, the target audience for this funding will cheer as they rush gleefully towards the honey pot that is other people's money.

If you fancy a shot at this cash, the proposals can be found here , you'll have to remember:

The programme is one of the instruments to link the democratic principles of Articles 10 and 11 TEU with a broad range of sectoral Union policies without replacing the specific dialogues with citizens, stakeholders and interest groups that the European Commission maintains. The next generation of the “Europe for Citizens” programme empowers citizens to exchange views on all areas of Union action and at all stages of the formal decision making process.